Linked by Jason Snell

Make no mistake: This is unprecedented, and the situation was deliberately engineered by the FBI and Department of Justice to force a showdown that could define limits our civil rights for generations to come. This is an issue with far-reaching implications well beyond a single phone, a single case, or even Apple itself.

As a career security professional, this case has chilling implications.

Rich’s argument is that the FBI and Department of Justice have engineered this case in order to get public opinion on their side and give them a foothold to push forward in forcing technology companies to assist the government in gaining access to private information. That law-enforcement agencies want to push into these areas is nothing new; it’s up to the other parts of government to restrain them. That will require some technical understanding and, more importantly, some backbone.